


Laughter Lines

by TheLittleMightyOne



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, crumples it, its gay solidarity!, so anyway lena and jesse were best friends in their overwatch days, takes canon, throws in the garbage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 15:34:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14500116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLittleMightyOne/pseuds/TheLittleMightyOne
Summary: Genji left years ago. Gérald and Ana are dead. All the while, Moira is slowly turning Gabriel into a monster.Jesse can't stay in a place that is crawling with death any longer.The night before he leaves, he takes his best friend Lena out for drinks and one last goodbye.





	Laughter Lines

"You're... You're _leaving_?"

The words barely escape her lips as a whisper. Lena's chest tightens. The bar around her blurs. She stares at Jesse as he raises his hand to call over the bartender.  _Leaving?_

"Have to, darlin'."

The barkeep refills Jesse's glass with his third or fourth shot of whiskey that night. He stares at the amber colored drink to avoid Lena's gaze. He knows it's bad. Looking at her would just hurt worse. He thought whiskey was supposed to  _dull_ the pain, not make it  _worse._

"N-no... No!" She shakes her head, "No! You-you don't _have to_ do anything! You, you don't have to go! Why... Why?! Why do you have to go?!"

Jesse throws his head back and downs the third or fourth shot of the night. "You know what's goin' on in there, darlin'. Moira's slowly killin' him. Turning him into that-" He pauses, feeling the lump in his throat swell. He clears his throat in an attempt to suppress it. It doesn't work. He doesn't finish the thought.

"But-but-"  
  
"But nothin'." He spits his words like venom, "He-he took me in 'n taught me everything I know 'n I'm not gonna sit here 'n watch as that _freak-_ " 

Lena brushes her fingertips against his arm tentatively. Jesse sighs. He leans forward on the bar, hunching his shoulders and covering his eyes with the brim of his hat. "Gérald is dead. Ana is dead. Genji is god knows where. Gabe goes on rants about  _mutanity._  I..." The lump returns. His fists clench. "I can't watch it all fall apart it, Lena. I really jus' can't. I'm leavin' before I'm forced to watch it."

"But..." Lena looks down, eyebrows furrowed as her mind grasps at something-anything-to convince him to stay, "But-"

"You're a stubborn gal," He tightens his grip on the glass, ""N I know what you're thinkin'. But, really, Lena. I've made up my mind."

She gulps. It plucks at his heartstrings.

"Don't worry, after all you-you still have Winston lookin' after 'ya,  'n Jack, 'n Angela..." His voice is quiet, soft, if not a bit gruff from exhaustion. "It'll, it'll be alright."

She spreads her palms on the bar's surface, feeling the cool wood under her fingertips in an attempt to ground herself. She tilts her head back towards Jesse and studies his features. His callused hands that have white knuckled gripped around the empty glass. His sunken eyes whose accompanying dark circles were growing by the day. His expression of pure and utter defeat.

The stress of the rising conflicts was eating at his psyche just as Moira's experiments were corroding Gabriel.

It would be awfully selfish of her to force him to stay when it was slowly killing him, wouldn't it?

"So you're... You're leavin' tomorrow, I take?"

Jesse's eyebrows raise in surprise. He was expecting a bit more water works. Either way, he tries to offer a smile, "You're more than welcome t'join me, y'know."

He gestures up towards the bartender once more. Lena reaches out and rests her hand on his. His eyes glance over towards Lena's distraught expression. He can't bring himself to keep his hand up.

"No," Lena says softly as she watches his arm lower. "No. I can't leave. Y-you're my best friend, Jesse but... This is my home. I can't leave it. Not yet. Like you said--Winston is still here."

"Mighty honorable of 'ya." He tips the brim of his hat, "But. When things get worse and Overwatch tanks, don't say I didn't tell'ya so."

"I won't. Cross my heart." 

Neither of them speak. Jesse looks at Lena's untouched fruit cocktail. Lena looks at his empty glass. The bar patrons chatter in the distance.

Jesse takes a deep breath. "So this is goodbye, then."

"Suppose it'is." Her voice begins to crack, "Suppose it... it'is..."

He purses his lips. Lena's eyes water. She sits up from her bar stool and throws her arms around his chest and holds on tightly, as if making one last ditch effort at keeping him here. If she held on tight enough, maybe he'd forget to leave.

Jesse is stiff for a moment, paralyzed from a mixture of drunken stupor and shock. He feels Lena tremble.

He slowly wraps his arms around her in return.

"I'll miss you, Jesse."

"I'll miss you too, kiddo."

"But, we'll see each'other again, won't we?"

He stifles a laugh. "Doubt it."

"Oh com'on! Don't say that." She squeezes, "'s a small world now. I'll visit ya, love! One day!"

(Optimism was her only defense against the rising cloud of sadness of never seeing her best friend again. It was easier to hold onto any hope she could muster to ward off any depression.)

"You won' be able to find me, darlin'."

(Pessimism was his only defense against the acidity of the fear of a life without her cheerfulness by his side. It was easier to shut down any hope to prevent future heartache.)

"No... No, please don't say that." Her voice is quieter now, quivering as the lump in her throat becomes harder to fight off, "Give me somethin' to hope for.  _Please,_ Jesse _._ Everyone else is already gone. It's like you said... They're... I don't wanna... I don't wanna think about... Possibly losing  _you_ too."

Tears begin to well as she burrows her face and sniffles into Jesse's chest. He closes his eyes, fighting off tears of his own. He lowers his scruffy chin into her hair. His heart grieved at seeing her like this-gripping onto him like a lifeline, as if he'd disappear before her very eyes if she didn't hold on.

He couldn't stay. He couldn't stand to watch his mentor decay before his very eyes as the others watched on in apathy.

But maybe he could at least put down the guard and give Lena what she desperately needed. It could be the least he could do for her.

"Don' worry, darlin'." He sighs and hugs her tighter, "I'll see ya again one day."

"Really?" A pause, "Do'ya promise?"

"Yea... Yea, I promise."

"Thank you." Her voice was wavering, sounding as fragile as glass, " _Thank you._ "

"'Course, kiddo."

Jesse pulls away. Lena wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. He offers her a gentle smile.

"'N if I find any girls 'bout your age in my journeys, I'll be sure to give'em your number."

Lena smiles as widely as she can, "My number one wingman."

He nods. "Anytime." 

**Author's Note:**

> jesse and lena are the greatest big brother/little sister dynamic in modern media and michael chu will have to pry that from my cold, dead hands. 
> 
> also this ain't shippy. don't make it shippy. i'm begging.


End file.
